Federal Newscast

National Guard in Washington, D.C. are moving to long-term housing

The National Guard troops will be deployed in D.C. until January 2029.

Michele Sandiford

July 27, 2026 11:49 am

< a min read

The National Guard is moving thousands of Guardsmen mobilized to Washington, D.C., from hotels into apartments. The National Guard Bureau has awarded a $292 million contract to Placemakr to provide up to 2,000 apartment-style units for troops supporting Joint Task Force–District of Columbia. The housing contract is the largest interagency lodging acquisition in National Guard history that will “provide a long-term housing solution to improve troop readiness.” The National Guard troops will be deployed in D.C. until January 2029.
(National Guard acquires long-term housing for troops deployed in D.C. - National Guard)

Agencies are being asked to report how prepared they are for changes in the government’s health insurance programs. The Office of Personnel Management is giving agencies until the end of July to fill out a survey on new eligibility requirements. They’ll have to confirm whether they will be able to verify 100% of new family members who enroll in federal health plans during this fall’s Open Season. The requirements stem from 2025 legislation mandating that OPM set up a system to verify plan members’ eligibility. It’s an effort to crack down on ineligible enrollees, who are costing OPM up to $1 billion annually.
(Benefits administration letter - Office of Personnel Management)

Senate-confirmed appointees are leaving the Trump administration at a record clip and they’re not being replaced quickly. New analysis from the Partnership for Public Service finds that 27 Senate-confirmed agency officials have vacated their positions during Trump’s second term so far. That’s close to two-and-a-half times as many departures as there were in Trump’s first term, and more than six times the average of other recent presidential administrations. The Partnership also reports that Trump has made fewer nominations to Senate-confirmed positions than any president since Reagan, leaving many agencies under acting leadership
(Record turnover in the second Trump administration - Partnership for Public Service)

The Department of Homeland Security has a new post-quantum cryptography leader. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Pat Manley has been named PQC lead for all of DHS. Manley says he’ll continue to guide CISA’s quantum security efforts while also shepherding DHS through the post-quantum cryptography transition. Manley’s appointment comes after President Trump signed an executive order last month requiring agencies to designate PQC leads. The order requires agencies to plan on transitioning high-value systems to PQC keys and digital signatures by the year 2031.
(Pat Manley PQC announcement - LinkedIn)

A bi-partisan group of lawmakers are pressing the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to finalize an acquisition regulation that has been in the works for almost four years. Congress directed the FAR Council to finalize a rule in 18 months to better prevent organizational conflicts of interest in federal acquisition as part of the 2022 defense authorization bill. Senators Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) want OFPP Administrator Kevin Rhodes to provide an update on where the rule is in the process. The FAR Council issued a draft rule in January 2025.
(Senators seek update on slow-moving OCI rule from FAR Council - Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is recruiting someone to lead one of its marquee cybersecurity programs. NIST is accepting applications for National Vulnerability Database program manager through July 29th. The NVD program is an official, publicly accessible repository of software and hardware cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It’s relied upon by cybersecurity professionals and technology companies across the world. But for the past two years, the program has been struggling to manage a growing backlog of unprocessed security flaws.
(NVD program manager announcement - USAJobs)

A provision that would bar the Defense Department from leasing its land to private companies to build data centers that contain components manufactured by U.S. adversaries is making its way through Congress. If enacted, the measure could complicate the department’s future modernization efforts. The amendment would prohibit companies from “installing or operating data facility equipment” that contains certain printed circuit boards, advanced semiconductors, chipsets and other components that the Defense Department considers a national security risk. The Army, however, said the provision would create a “federal land penalty.” As the Pentagon accelerates its plans to host commercial data centers on its land, lawmakers are getting increasingly focused on the broader implications of these projects.
(Congress ramps up scrutiny of Pentagon AI data center plans - Federal News Network)

Investments by the Technology Modernization Fund are expected to return more than a billion dollars in savings. A new report by the Government Accountability Office found 24 out of the TMF board's 68 investments are responsible for the real-dollar savings. Auditors say three projects from USDA, VA and OPM are driving about 80% of the expected savings. GAO says in its fourth Congressionally-mandated review of the TMF that the remaining 37 projects do not expect to obtain savings, but agencies are receiving other valuable benefits like reducing security risks. Congress must reauthorize the TMF before it sunsets on September 30th.
(TMF investments expected to drive $1B in savings - Government Accountability Office)